Nothing to Write, Better Get it Done

There are two voices operating in my head this morning. The first says, “You have nothing to write about today.” The second says, “You better get on and do it so.”

Some of the best writing gets done when you don’t know what to write. If that’s the case, I have high hopes for this piece because the empty page stretches below this sentence like a deserted west of Ireland beach, and I have no idea whatsoever what the next paragraph will hold.

Write. Just write. Set something down. Use your brain and well as your fingers. What happened this week? What happened to you? What occurred?

This week was quite a bit about the telly I watched. There was ‘Adolescence’ of course. We all watched that. I thought it was excellent, particularly Episode One, although they were all very good. I am interested in how the series is presented to us. It reminds me, rather incongruously, of how the Mission Impossible movies are presented to us. In both, there is the product, the story, the drama but, quite deliberately, there is also the making of the product. How was that shot done? Where was the camera? Did anyone break a foot? And an emphasis, all the time, that it was real, real time, real action. Real. Real. I’m not being critical of the approach. I reckon ‘Adolescence’ is the best thing I’ve seen on telly in a long time. The drive to talk about the making of the series as much as the issues raised in it is interesting, that’s all.

I also got to the end of Season 2 of Severance. Jump these paragraphs if you’re getting there yourself. I’m not intending to go all spoiler-tastic on it, but I tend to believe that everything is a spoiler when you talk to someone about something they haven’t yet seen. A raised eyebrow, a wry smile, the side you dress on… anything can give your feelings away.

For me. Severance Season 1 was a rather perfect thing. I’ve watched it twice and I think it delivers its premise admirably, with pace and determination. If Severance had ended with Series 1, it would have entered my consciousness as a wonderful thing that I would aspire to revisit from time to time. Rather like Rubicon. Anyone remember that? One series, very good, would like to revisit but never did.

Severance Season 1 ended on a cliffhanger but, now that I’ve seen Season 2, I could have lived with it ending there. Don’t get me wrong, Season 2 has acres of stuff to commend it, and it tied up really well in the last episode but, at times, it struggled to make it to that last episode. It required all of the first two episodes to tidy up the melee left from the end of Season 1. Then it had a number of branches out and back story episodes (expect more of those next season, Milchick… Burt… Ricken, even). Several of the four central characters strayed from their stories and the whole thing became diluted and stretched. The sense was that it would all fall together for another fine frenzy in the final episode and that’s pretty much how it went down, and very good it was too. I’ll be there for Season 3, of course I will, but that Season 1, that was a thing of beauty.

Here we are, 570 words. I haven’t looked back since that “What occurred?” sentence. But I’m back in the world not with nothing to write and my cold…

Oh, yes, I had a cold last week and I’m just crawling out from under it. A medium to bad one, I’d say. I’m a bit of a bugger with colds because I don’t stop and sleep and drink hot drinks. I work on through. I drag myself around with the mistaken belief that the worst thing I could do would be to lie down under it. I know this is wrong. I should be resting, using my meagre resources to battle the lurgy inside instead of wasting them stumbling to work across the town green. Anyway, I’m getting better now. There’s a bit of a cough. Oh, and when I was in the library yesterday, a lady came out of the computer room and walked past me and then when she clocked me, she doubled back and opened the computer room door and held it for me. “Sorry,” she said. “It’s okay,” I said, “I’m not going in there.” I guess that’s how shit I looked. Like an old man with a cold. I didn’t enjoy that experience. I’m nobody’s old man, not for another few short years anyway.

The latest film that Richard Keaney made from one of my scripts got into its seventh film festival this week. So Bedford and Naas, here we come. ‘Joey Had Never Been Out of the City’ came from a little story which originated on this blog so it’s not all been a waste of Sunday mornings. I really love this little film and it’s great to see festival audiences embrace it too.

And here I am. The page is full. Little value to everyone, I know, but the contract has been fulfilled for another week. The promise has been kept. Thank you for coming this far down the page with me. I hope you have a happy and peaceful week.

Au Revoir…